3.15.2011

Really interesting: Let Kids Rule the School: "I recently followed a group of eight public high school students, aged 15 to 17, in western Massachusetts as they designed and ran their own school within a school."

I semi-randomly decided to reread one of my all time favorite books, The Portrait Of A Lady. With so many books, I find myself skimming through the description in order to get to the dialogue, but with James, and with this book in particular, I find almost every sentence to be so beautifully crafted and to convey so much, I savor each one. James' writing is so fully of wit and beauty and intelligence and close observation, it never ceases to amaze me. How could you not be pulled in by even the first sentence? "Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

It's hard not to love/hate Brooklyn: Brooklyn Is Hardcover Book Country: "A recent Friday expedition on an uptown F train found not a single Kindle, iPad or knickety-knack Nook in sight. Two young ladies, one clutching her canvas shopping bag, the other with a smart pageboy haircut, were instead reading the ultimate fuck you to the e-reader, the original ambiguous literary doodad: a jacketless hardcover book. 'Feel it.'"

3 comments:

As a teacher, that NYT article is fascinating. I wish my students had more freedom to study what they're genuinely interested in. The minute amounts of freedom I give them in class always yield the best results.

@amy so many of my awesome, creative friends are teachers and they all seem so frustrated with the way the system works. i wish that people who were actually on the ground, teaching, got more of a say in how schools are structured, curriculums programmed, etc...

@susie, its sooo good, right? i think people expect it to be dry and boring because its old, but james has such a sharp tongue and a keen eye for describing people, that its anything but tame!